Failure
by Liffae
Summary: Team 7 didn't pass the bell test. It was the best thing that ever happened to Naruto.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_Hope hurts more than hate._

* * *

Haruno Sakura stared at her rice.

Of course –_ of course_, that idiotic orange-clad boy had gotten himself tied up. Still, privately, she felt that she had done worse. Like always, even in the academy, no matter who did the worst, Naruto was always the one made an example of.

And this time, she really felt guilty about it.

After all, Naruto had actually fought Kakashi. Heck, Naruto had actually _touched_ Kakashi-sensei. She hadn't lifted a finger. She hadn't even seen the (annoying-late-obnoxious-masked) teacher. She'd just fallen for some pitiful genjutsu. Sasuke would _never_ look at her at this rate! She sneaked a glance at Sasuke, but her eyes were drawn instead to the orange form of her other teammate. _Cha!_ That stupid Naruto. Even in her mind, he interrupted her thoughts of her one true love.

If only Kakashi-sensei had tied _her_ to the stump. Then she wouldn't feel so bad.

Haruno Sakura glared at her rice. She _was_ on a diet. That chicken didn't look so appealing, either. The vegetables were simply _covered_ with oil. That Naruto – she looked again, orange-blond-idiot-stupid-nice-wait, what? – He sure looked like he could use the food.

It was in times like these that Sakura realized, most harshly, that she was a follower, not a leader. She did not dare initiate. Even in her one most defining pastime, that of loving Sasuke, she had only been part of a crowd of girls who'd done the same.

That is not to say she was unkind. That is not to say she did not feel guilty.

_If Sasuke offers Naruto his food, I will too_, she decided resolutely, _and only then. _She didn't want to ruin any chances she had. So Haruno Sakura forced the guilt back down and glared at her rice.

_Say something, Sasuke_.

* * *

Naruto was hungry.

It wasn't, in all actuality, for the food. He was hungry for attention. He was hungry for the normalcy that the food represented. In all his life, he had been set apart. This one time, he wanted to be normal, like everybody else. But what was the point? He was stupid, he was loud, and he wasn't even a really good ninja. Sakura would never like him – not that he had thought she would in the first place. She had been nice before, sweet, even, but she wasn't anymore. Sasuke would never think of him as a rival, much less a friend. The teacher would never accept him, nor teach him.

Instruction and kindness and friendship and love – all those things were reserved for others. All _good_ things were reserved for other people. It was a simple to him as a fact of life.

He lifted his head to look up at the clouds.

For a short while, Naruto entertained the idea that perhaps – maybe, just maybe – they would offer him some food. He even imagined the scenario: Sasuke would hold out his food and say "I'm not hungry," and Sakura, like always, would follow. Then he'd take it (even though he wasn't particularly hungry himself) and thank them and eat fervently. And for some reason, Kakashi-sensei would pass them and they'd be the best team ever.

Of course, something like that would never happen.

But – but, if it did happen…!

He made a promise to himself, right then and there. Should these two people (whom he had always wanted to befriend, for he had always wanted to befriend everybody) show him any kindness, he would give them all he had. He would follow them to the ends of the earth. He would really, truly love Sakura and not just distract her. He would try his best to become a suitable rival for Sasuke.

But when, no,_ if_ they didn't accept him – what would he do then? What would he become?

* * *

In the end, it all came down to Sasuke.

The avenger, too, was looking down at his food. He was well aware of Naruto's struggles beside him – perhaps too aware. Why should he care about the idiot, anyway? He couldn't make friends – Itachi had said so. '_Despise me,'_ his brother had said. '_Live a miserable life,_' he'd commanded. And though a part of him hated following anything Itachi had said, another part of him agreed with it. He didn't have the time to waste on trivial matters like relationships. He had to grow strong and avenge his family.

He had to rid himself of the ghosts of his past, and the only way to do that was to surpass the insurmountable wall that was his brother - the genius, Itachi.

Still, he glanced at Naruto. The blonde was the closest thing he had to a friend – the one person who neither pitied him nor idolized him. Sasuke was also aware of Naruto's living conditions. Who wouldn't be? It was so glaringly obvious. When Academy classes ended and children were picked up by their parents, only he and Naruto left alone, silently, in the middle of the crowd.

For a second, Sasuke teetered on the edge of indecision. His hand trembled as it held his bento, as if his arm rebelled against him. It would be so easy, _so easy_ to accept Naruto, to befriend him. They were two birds of a feather.

But he didn't need friends.

Naruto was weak, and he was strong. They were completely different. He _had _to be strong, and Naruto was just another fool who was going to get killed someday.

His fingers twitched again. But he _wanted _a friend. So help him, he _wanted_ somebody to smile at him with no strings attached. He wanted somebody to train with, somebody to laugh with, and somebody to _be_ with. Who cared what Itachi – _Itachi_.

He had friends, before – before _that._

In a spur of motion, Sasuke moved, before he could change his mind. He took the bento in his left hand, his chopsticks in his right… and began to eat. Beside him, from the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura startle, frown, and then tentatively eat her meal, as well.

He finished in five minutes, the food uncomfortably heavy in his stomach. It wasn't that it was _bad_ food; to the contrary, it was rather appetizing. But for some reason, the sight of Naruto made his stomach churn. So Sasuke forced it down and closed the bento box.

And in that moment, the course of destiny changed.

* * *

Kakashi frowned as he watched the backs of his ex-genin disappear. For a moment there, he'd thought that they might pass. The way that the Uchiha had hesitated, the looks that the Pinky gave the Idiot … For a minute, he'd resigned himself to taking the team. No – that wasn't it.

No, he had never not cared about this group - not when the last legacy of Obito's family sat brooding and his Sensei's son stood desolately there. And for a moment, he had even seen the former Team 7 in them, and had felt something akin to gratitude for what seemed like a second chance.

But then the Uchiha had dug into his meal. He'd seen the emotions dance across the Pinky's face: shock, relief, and then guilt. The guilt lasted the longest. It was surprising; from the reports he'd read, he had thought she would be a heartless Kunoichi with a voice reminiscent of a banshee.

Most surprising, however, was Naruto.

Kakashi liked to think himself a reader of the unguarded mind. Genin-level Academy graduates' thoughts, no matter how powerful the Genin were (with the singular exception of some Hyuuga branch members, but they were stuck-up and probably had a toddler's class named 'Losing Your Facial Muscles') could be read like an Icha Icha book: painless, effortless, and entertaining.

So he'd seen the brief moment of hope on Naruto's face as he look up at the sky. This, he wisely labeled, was the moment when Naruto considered that his teammates help him. Then he'd seen a surprising look of determination on the young blonde's face, a look that reminded him of his sensei. It was Naruto's reaction to his teammates' snubbing that bothered Kakashi the most, however.

It just didn't match up.

Leaf ninja were taught, from the very beginning of the Academy careers, that their comrades would help them in any and every situation. That was why, inevitably, in this situation, the person tied to the stump would automatically turn to their teammates with hope of help. However, Naruto immediately turned to the notion that his teammates would not help.

It was like this. The normal response to his simulation was: _My teammates will help me! …But what if they don't…?_ However, the way Naruto reacted indicated this: _My teammates won't help me. …But what if they do…?_

It was unsettling. He was so used to that shine of hope – he knew exactly how it would go. The trussed up child would look around with hope – would falter, slightly, at the doubtful thought – but would cling to that hope, and, when refused help, would become angry.

Naruto, on the other hand, smiled.

It was not his blindingly bright smile. That smile was one that Kakashi had unraveled (only from his memories of Obito) and declared fake. It was not his smirk, a smile which Kakashi had seen (and nearly shivered at) once after Naruto had finished that village-wide prank of painting the main streets neon pink. It was not even the tired, lazy smile, nor the (also fake) 'pleading' smile he wore when he bothered Sakura. It was a small, strange smile.

At least, it looked strange on his face. It was more of the corners of the lips tugging themselves upward in response to some inner 'I-told-you-so'. Then, with a pang, Kakashi recognized it. And he realized why it looked so strange. He'd seen it many times on the faces of old, veteran shinobi right before a battle. He'd seen it many times etched into the Sandaime's face.

It was a smile of resignation.

For a moment, he wondered. How was it that a little, happy-seeming blond boy (_Sensei's son_, a little part of his brain said, but he forced that though back) would have expected his teammates to abandon him? It was, after all, something unheard of in Konoha, where teamwork was promoted to dizzying heights and even skill resided below it. How – no, _why_, why would a twelve-year-old kid even be entertaining thoughts of betrayal?

And, if he had read that sigh right, the boy did not just think briefly of it; he expected it, and only entertained thoughts of getting help. _My teammates won't help me. …But what if they _do_…? _

Kakashi began the walk home at a slow, leisurely pace. He even forgot to tell the team they'd failed. All that was on his mind was that boy… The blonde was still such a mystery, even after all the years Kakashi had known of him, and even watched over him in ANBU. And, with any luck, the Hokage wouldn't ask him something silly to appease the Merchants' Guild, even if they'd been getting restless lately.

Then again, he didn't have much luck anymore.

* * *

_What will I do now?_

Naruto meandered through the streets. The late-afternoon shoppers regarded him with disdain, but it was something he'd long since learned to put up with. He thought back to the events of the strange genin test. They had failed in capturing the bells, he had gotten tied up, he didn't eat anything, and then Kakashi-sensei – no, _Kakashi_, had shown up and declared that they had failed the test.

He lingered a while on the short moment of hope he'd had. It had been so blindingly obvious to him, in that second, that no matter what, he would give the world for those two. If only they had… If only, then he would go to the ends of the earth for them. But they hadn't – those two, both people with whom he had wanted to befriend for a long time – those two had turned their faces away like everybody else. Was it because he was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki? Was that why he was different? If only…

Oh, but hope was such a fickle thing!

He could go back to the Academy.

…No, he couldn't. He couldn't handle the look on Iruka's face if he failed again. He couldn't…

What would he become? What could he do? What about his dream?

But – maybe, he could still become strong. Maybe, despite not becoming a genin, he could still rise and make everybody look at him. Naruto could still be respected!

…A foolish thought, he decided, very foolish indeed. He thought back to his test. _Sasuke did so much better than I did. I don't like admitting it, but it's true. Even Sakura must have done better than me, because she wasn't tied up. I was horrible. I didn't even touch a bell. If not for Kage Bunshin, I wouldn't even have touched Kakashi. _

He seized upon the thought: _Kage Bunshin_. He'd learned it a fortnight ago, but it was already his trump card, his best move. Naruto stopped in the middle of the dusty road and thought, long and hard. He weighed the pros and cons; he looked at it from every angle. Finally, he decided.

It was time to seize the day – _carpe diem_. If fate didn't want to give him a path to respect and the love of others – well, then.

He'd forge one for himself.

* * *

_Dedicated to a White Angel: Shiro-Tenshi, my soul sister. I hope you haven't forgotten our promise to take over the world together with chocolate chips…_

**Author's Notes: **10.26.2012: Minor grammar/idea edits

_Liffae ^-~_


	2. An Unconscious Decision

**Chapter One: An Unconscious Decision**

_The boy broke, but no one saw._

* * *

_It wasn't often that Sarutobi Hiruzen felt like he was too old to hold up the Hokage mantle._

_Like most days, it had started out as a perfectly wonderful day – the sun was bright, his ninja were cheerful, he had coffee on his desk and a morning of 'paperwork' (read: indulgence in his student's writings) and his Jounin-senseis had proved to be, if not intelligent, not dumb._

_Oh, wait. Take that last one back._

"_What did you say?" The Sandaime rubbed his temples and lifted the heavy hat off his head. It had been a long time since he last felt that the crushing weight of his title was too much for him to handle. A long time, but not long enough._

"_You should have seen them," Kakashi told him, defensive. "If I hadn't failed that team, they would have died in the field. And," he added, voice softening, "you _know_ I didn't want to fail them_

_Sarutobi rolled his eyes. "I did see them. You know I was watching your test. There's a lot riding on your team." The Hokage understood; there had been literally no chance to save the disaster that was Team 7, he had been watching, after all, and they failed the first chance, flunked the second—_

"_Yes, so with all due respect, I'd like to apply for an apprenticeship."_

–_then again, he had never had much hope for Team 7. The strange Team 7s in the past had worked out at first, against all logic and common sense, but all of them had fallen apart too. It was ninja life, and Sarutobi knew that; they die, they lie, they break apart. Nobody ever said the protectors were protected._

_ However, Sarutobi had hoped that Kakashi would see what he was doing and try to save Naruto. With the Uchiha on the team, it was almost guaranteed to pass. Almost, that is, until the team completely failed to show any sliver of teamwork._

_After the news had reached the Merchant's Guild, they'd shown the reason why Konoha had one of the leading mercantile sectors among the Five Great nations. _

_The civilians loved the Uchiha, who had been a constant presence since the founding of Konoha, and were indebted to them for maintaining the inner police force. Many never saw the effects of the ninja that went on outer missions to secure money for Konoha, but the Uchiha had been a constant, calming presence. _

_After Uzumaki Naruto had become a genin, he was denied access to the Orphans' Fund of Konoha. After he failed the test, he was not a genin. As of now, Naruto had no access to any funds. Slowly but surely he'd run out of options and resources and would become an easy target for the hateful villagers. Furthermore, as he was no longer under Sarutobi's jurisdiction as a ninja, any crimes he committed would be submitted to the civilian council and police, and he would no doubt be placed in jail soon enough, or even worse, be condemned to death._

_No doubt, Sarutobi could stop them. But the choice they had offered him was easy, and something that had to be done in any case. It was no trouble at all for a bloodless concession of equality to Naruto. _

_Sarutobi closed weary eyes, tired and tried. "At least one thing will turn out easy," he muttered. "Kakashi, you have full permission to take Uchiha Sasuke as an apprentice."_

_There was a moment of silence. The Hokage cracked open an eye. "What are you still here for?"_

"_Sir, I don't want Uchiha as an apprentice. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will take him." With a thick swallow, Kakashi admitted, "I'd like to be given Uzumaki Naruto, sir."_

_He was greeted with the loud voice of silence, who had evidently decided she hadn't been heard the first time._

_The Hokage closed his eyes again and turned to view his great, mighty, and terrible city. What a beautiful city this is, he thought. What a beautiful city that Minato died for, that I will die for, that we will all die for._

_What a beautiful disaster._

_He turned, reaching for the words. They did not come, so he swallowed and did his best. "They'd put me in a bad spot, Kakashi," he said. "It was either throw Naruto to the mercies of the Merchant Guild or make sure Uchiha Sasuke got the best education I could offer."_

"_Hokage-sama, the two don't even have anything to do with each other. I won't-"_

_They didn't. He had been outraged, but if it was to choose between the Council's stupid pride in their last Uchiha and his surrogate grandson – well, that was no choice at all._

"_It wasn't a suggestion." The Hokage's voice was steel. "As of now, you are Uchiha Sasuke's mentor. This will last for a period of two years, during which you will be removed from active duty."_

_Kakashi's voice was unnaturally loud. "So that's it, then? You're going to let them take Minato-sensei's son like that?"_

_The Hokage didn't turn, and Kakashi stood there for minutes, trembling with barely contained rage. Then, soft, like a whisper, the Hokage said: "Don't underestimate me."_

* * *

It was not so hard the second time around.

If anything, it was _easier_.

The tower was virtually unguarded. The first couple of levels were still filled with working people, but there was even a window on the seventh level that was left open – _open_. From there, it was simple for the chronic prankster to avoid the basic traps and head toward the Hokage Office. A kunai trap there, a wire here… The traps had to be simple just because they all had to be taken down in the daytime for easy access. (It wouldn't do for a foreign ambassador to be injured by a security trap.) Naruto had known this for years, and had exploited it several (okay, _many_) times.

There were some chuunin on the seventh floor, but they were only finishing up their last tasks for the evening. It was simple enough for Naruto to evade them. He was, after all, a master prankster and had evaded even Jounin in the past.

The eighth level was easily surpassed; a staircase led right past it up to the ninth and final level.

He paused there. Naruto should have been breathing heavily, but due to being a veteran of chases and the container of the Kyuubi, his breathing was light. He looked, then, at the door that represented his dreams. It was a great, big, oaken door, worn smooth by time and thousands of admiring gazes.

Naruto had always wanted to be Hokage. But the reason why had eluded him for a long time. When he was young, he wondered if it was the pretty hat that drew him to the position. Later he thought, for a while, that he wanted the love and recognition a Hokage earned.

Standing there, before the doors, he wondered if it wasn't something else. The Hokage, to him, had always been the very definition of strength. And he, Naruto, had always been weak. He wondered, then, if he had just wanted to be strong. Maybe Uzumaki Naruto hadn't wanted to be Hokage for some deep, philosophical reason. Maybe that wasn't why he was drawn to the name.

Maybe it was because, for once, Naruto wanted to stand at the top of the world, look down, and smile.

The Forbidden Scroll was right there, as plain as day. For a moment, Naruto paused, almost certain it was another trap. He had been fooled once by Mizuki, twice by Kakashi, and damn if he was going to be fooled thrice. But the Scroll was free of any trap that he could see, and Naruto was a master at detecting and setting traps. (Disregarding, of course, those times he had been fooled.)

He tried to shrug off the admonitory feeling and succeeded. He reached out for the Scroll, took it in his hands, and did not look back.

* * *

"_Hokage's orders." Kakashi stood calmly before the two night guards._

"_Of course, Kakashi-sensei," one agreed. The other bowed reverently. There was some use to being an ANBU legend, Kakashi decided. _

_The two ninja flashed away from the Hokage tower immediately. Kakashi settled down for the night guard. He took out his orange book and tried to immerse himself in reading. _

_It was about midnight when he saw Naruto approaching. The boy had shed his neon orange for a dark brownish-black, and it had been hard to spot him at first. Kakashi was impressed, despite himself. If he had not been who he was, an ANBU and Jounin, he might have – possibly – missed the kid._

_The boy didn't hesitate to exploit the open window and in a matter of minutes was in and out, and gone. If – no, _when_ – he got a chance to teach the kid, he'd have to teach him to look underneath the underneath. The easy setup should have made him immediately paranoid. He should have stopped and wondered if it was a trap._

_Naruto was too trusting – too much, like his father. But that wasn't a bad thing. "Good luck," Kakashi whispered, to the boy who could not hear him. "I'll be seeing you soon."_

* * *

Before he was even aware of it, Naruto had made an unconscious decision.

He was going to leave Konoha.

Oh – it sounded bad, put like that. And from the beginning, it had not been like that at all. He had looked at his life up to that point and saw that the one thing that had helped him most toward his goal was that one hour with the Forbidden Scroll. So, obviously, he had decided to try for another hour with the Scroll.

But now that he had it in his hands a second time, he looked out at a village that hated him; thought of people that had betrayed and despised him, and knew that he could linger no longer. Sakura, whom he had only ever been nice to, had spat on him and declared him a loser. She had beaten him with fists and words, but he had never retaliated. Sasuke, who had been somebody to look up to and a measuring stick for his own growth, had looked down on him with unconcealed disgust. Iruka-sensei – even Iruka had hated him for a long while. That silver-haired "sensei" had dismissed him. His so-called "companions" during his Academy years left him without a second glance.

Even the Sandaime, though kind, could do little and had no time to do what little he could. And Naruto, like any other child, knew that more time was spent on more important things. Loud kids got more attention, so he'd tried being loud. He'd tried it all.

Nothing had worked.

It was with kind of a resignation that he turned away from the mountain. Although he let no thought of it – _missing, abandon, leave, nukenin…_ - in his heart, the moment that he turned away was the moment that he knew he could no longer live here as he was: a weak boy dependent on others, because all the other people in these walls hated him.

In that moment, Naruto was invincible. He was a boy who had everything to gain and nothing left to lose.

True, there is no such thing as perfection. The master of every class holds the chance of defeat in his heart. True invincibility is being afraid of nothing. True invincibility is always looking forward. True invincibility is being at the very bottom of the ladder, and not the top. The weakest seed in the ground has nothing to lose but his life, and can only grow skywards.

With the Scroll in one hand and a feeling of invincibility in his heart, Naruto left the walls of Konoha and ventured into the forest.

* * *

The forest was dark.

Naruto, however, had always been able to see well in the dark. The branches and pitfalls of the dense thicket were no trouble to him. He ran easily, jumping over dents and ditches in the ground. His kill-me-orange jumpsuit, even under layers of mud and paint, glowed to his eyes. He could see every individual stalk of grass, bending under the weight of the wind of his passing.

_Kyuubi_ – he thought, and at once he wanted to thank and despise the being. Without Kyuubi, he would not have survived all those years of torment at the hands of the villagers. He would not be able to see in the dark, create so many Kage Bunshin, or recover so quickly from the frequent beatings he had been subjected to. Without Kyuubi, he might not have gone through any of that at all. Without Kyuubi, he could have been _normal_.

For a second, his mind lingered on that thought. All he could hear was the deliberately ninja-sneaky quietness of his feet, the rustle of wind through the trees, and a soft beating of his heart. For a moment, he lingered there. _What if he was normal?_

But the moment passed, and Naruto scoffed at the fleeting notion, as he always did. It was no good to dwell on things like that. Better to laugh and shrug it off.

* * *

_Interlude_

When he was little, he had walked by two brothers. They had dark hair and kind faces. The older one carried the younger one on his shoulders, and he walked with the gait of a ninja. (Naruto knew because people who walked like that always hit harder.) People around them turned from Naruto to look toward them. (That's the prodigy…Sharingan…Itachi-san.)

The younger one had pulled at the older one's cheeks. "…Big Brother…don't you smile once in a while?" The distance between them carried away the words.

And Naruto thought about that – those words: prodigy, powerful. He thought about how somebody that great couldn't smile, and he decided that smiling must be a truly marvelous and hard-to-attain thing. Later, he realized that it wasn't true, but somewhere in his mind the notion remained.

* * *

So even then, in the dark, where nobody could see him, Naruto pushed away his thoughts, smiled, and decided that he had gone far enough to peek in the Scroll for the second time in his life.

So the orange-clad boy slowed to a stop, his breathing only just erring on the side of heavy after two solid hours of sprinting. His stamina, which he had blessed before, he no longer knew whether to curse or appreciate. It was, after all, a gift of the Kyuubi, wasn't it?

Better to bless it, then. There was no point in hating Kyuubi, now that it was all he had. He had only a head full of Kyuubi, a lifetime of bad memories, and the need to get stronger. From a life within a village that had despised him, he knew that just to survive, he had to rise above.

He sat with his back to a tree trunk – Shinobi Rule (what number, he didn't know): Never leave your back open. There was a pang in his heart as he thought this, because Sakura-chan – no, just Sakura – would know the number and the exact wording. But Sakura wasn't here, and she wouldn't care anyway, and that hurt, so he stopped thinking altogether.

Then he took the Scroll in his hands and opened it once more.

The first thing he noted was the solid block of text that he had worked his way painstakingly through the other night. His eyes skimmed the heavy terminology briefly, but he still found the complex wordings just as confusing as they had been before. He sighed, crossed his fingers, and pulled at the paper, revealing more of the Scroll.

There, in the margin, was something that he had not seen before, hidden as it was by the bulk of the Scroll. It was a small, messy written note, connected, by an arrow, to the particularly confusing last sentence. It read simply: _clone's memories return to you._

It took Naruto's brain a while to process this.

His first thought was – _So I'm _not_ crazy!_ For he'd been noticing strange things about the technique; things like seeing himself from different perspectives, tripping and falling flat on his face but finding no telltale bump – things like that. Naruto had been quick to blame the strange, hallucinatory memories on the Kyuubi, because the fox seemed to be the root of most his troubles.

But, being a creature of the see-it-to-believe-it mentality, Naruto quickly created a clone and set the Scroll in his counterpart's hands. The clone scurried off behind the cover of some trees.

A moment later, Naruto shot to his feet and raced into those very same trees. He found the Scroll where his clone had left it, safely nestled in a clump of grass on the ground. Then Naruto took the Scroll and began unrolling it frantically.

It was true.

There was nothing there.

The paper was smooth and thick, in the way that high quality scroll paper often is. It had a slightly woody smell and a smooth-but-rough texture. Its color had the same consistency as cloud and a hue reminiscent to bread. Naruto's dirty hands itched to tear it and ruin its perfection – and not just because he was a troublemaker.

The paper was completely unmarred by ink.

Panic was his first thought – all of that for nothing? He was almost two hours away from Konoha, and had just committed a treasonous _crime_ to get his hands on a Scroll that was completely worthless! His second rationalization was more logical. _Calm down_, he ordered himself, _think. Thinking is what a good shinobi does._

Admittedly, Naruto thought little and was not a very "good" shinobi, but the sentiment remained nevertheless.

_Maybe they just decided to put a bit of empty space between two jutsu_, he thought, and kept doggedly unrolling the Scroll. _I'll see a word the next time I turn this thing._

But no words appeared on the expanse of paper.

And when, for most people, sanity and desperation would have kicked in, a stubborn perseverance raised its head in Naruto. He called up two clones and they helped him unroll the thing even faster. Length by length of paper flew by, stretching, in its entirety, perhaps half a mile. Naruto gritted his teeth as whatever hope was left in him fled before the endless emptiness.

Goodness, if anybody had even scrolled out this much to write on it, they would never have gotten it all rolled up again!

But the thought stayed with him. _If I just turn it one more time, I'll see writing._ He couldn't give up now. He had come so far.

There was only a thin layer of paper left, rolled around the wooden roller. Naruto sighed and dismissed his clones, opting to dwell in another one of his failures alone. He painstakingly turned the centerpiece once, twice, thrice, and a final time, reaching the very end.

Would it be too dramatic to say that his life flashed before his eyes? A child, ridiculed no matter what he did, followed with hating eyes. A kid at an orphanage, with ears that could hear through the thin walls as his very name was used as a curse by the matron. A young boy, trying to figure out how to operate a broken stove. The only student who didn't pass the graduation test – three times. The fool that fell for Mizuki-teme's trap. The boy whose team failed his would-be-sensei's test.

All his life, all his memories were of disappointment. And if that was all he knew – if he had never won – then what could he be _but_ a failure? Was he not only what society had created, a monster of desperation and loneliness? Wasn't he just an unwanted boy? Wasn't he just a failure?

_I'm sorry, Sandaime-ojisan, _he thought. _You were wrong. I am a failure. And that's all I'll ever be._

What was he to do now?

* * *

**Author's Notes: **10.28.2012: Minor grammar changes.

Thanks to all of my awesome reviewers and favoriters :)

_Liffae ^-~_


	3. The Forbidden Scroll

**Chapter Two: The Forbidden Scroll**

_The boy lied, and won._

* * *

He noticed it then.

It was just a single line of text, scrawled in a light, messy way at the very edge of the parchment where paper met wood. But he bent down, and in the darkness, his (_demon, demon_) eyes picked out the words easily. "Perseverance is the key to victory," he read, "and you have persevered."

Then, beneath that line of text, where the paper all but melded into the wood of the roller, there were a few more words: "Hokage Mountain, Yondaime's right eye. Seal."

Excitement grew inside Naruto. It was like… like a secret message! It was like the book that Iruka-sensei read to them once, where the ninja went through all these obscure clues and ended up rescuing a princess! Naruto haphazardly rolled up the Scroll again and tossed it into the brush at the base of the tree. He made a clone – easy now, just a flex of that inner thing called _chakra_ and a _poof_ – and it approached and arranged the branches so that the bright red-and-crème of the Scroll wasn't visible.

Naruto laughed, quietly, in exultation, looked at his clone (his only companion) and said, in what he imagined was a heroic voice, "Let's go!" The clone nodded happily in confirmation.

He gathered chakra to his feet and prepared to take to the foliage for the long trip back to the Hokage Mountain. Plans were already running through his head. He'd need a diversion, and some clones, maybe some rope…

"Boss?"

"Quiet, I'm _thinking_," Naruto snapped, as he continued his breakneck pace, the clone following closely behind him.

"Boss," the clone persisted, "What's a seal?"

* * *

The Konoha Shinobi Library was perhaps the biggest ninja library in all of the Five Great Nations. (The Land of Trees possibly had a bigger one, but it was not one of the Great Nations and, besides, all the 'ninja' there were studious little librarians, not _real_ ninjas.)

It contained jutsu as high as S-ranked down to the simplest of E-ranked, Academy jutsu. Due to this, it was sectioned off into 5 levels.

The first and ground level was the "E-Rank" level, open to all Genin. It contained a catalog of the things that could be found on higher levels (to encourage effort toward rank advancement), the three simplest jutsu, and the Konoha history textbooks. The second level – D-Level – was open to seasoned Genin, or rather, Genin who had been such for more than 6 months or whose Jounin-sensei accompanied them or gave them a pass. Third was reserved for chuunin, fourth for Jounin, and the final level for elite Jounin or ANBU.

Needless to say, most elite Jounin and ANBU didn't spend their free hours browsing musky old library texts, so apart from security, the top levels were mostly empty. The upper libraries themselves had very few texts, as confidential information that was ANBU classified generally wasn't given to a public place such as the library. It was mostly filled with specialized texts that, while accessible to lower-ranked specialists in minor forms (such as TenTen's sealing scrolls) were deemed dangerous enough to be limited to the general ninja. So, the library had kind of a conical shape, with cylindrical levels that got smaller and smaller as the stories progressed upward.

Information on sealing was generally considered dangerous, as sealing itself is a dangerous art, so even basic information was confined to at least B, or A Rank.

Not, of course, that something silly like _security_ could hinder the unstoppable force known as Uzumaki Naruto.

Here's how it went.

See, Uzumaki Naruto pulled out his super-awesome ninja Hokage powers and walked through the walls and ceilings. He adopted a slow-motion, dramatic walk as something burst into explosive flames behind him before reaching impossibly well-secured levels and memorizing the information he needed before—

In all seriousness, it took one jutsu and a little bit of good-ninja cheating.

One hour before noon that day, a one-eyed Jounin with silver hair buried his face in an orange book as he walked calmly through the lower levels of the Konoha Shinobi Library. He waved absentmindedly at the door guard – "Yo" – and casually slouched in, settling himself in a sofa at the top level of the library, with a great view of the Hokage Mountain.

Nobody stopped him.

Presently he tucked the orange book away and stood up, casually. The door guard had long since settled himself against the door and was reading something. 'Kakashi' strolled over to the many shelves of scrolls that lay in the brightly lit interior of the room, past the dusty reading area.

It took him several minutes of tense examination to figure out how the scrolls were sorted. 'Kakashi' startled at the slightest noises – but that was only characteristic of a war veteran. It was only after finding an entire shelf of books on 'Seals and Sealing' that 'Kakashi' encountered his first problem. The problem was that his pouch was so small, only two of the books could fit in the pouch.

'Kakashi' glanced around. He didn't want to stay here for too long, because there was the chance that he would be found out.

Quickly, he decided to learn what he could and take two books with him. He opened the shortest, "Basic Seals", and began reading quickly.

_One of the more obscure shinobi arts is the practice of Sealing. Although most shinobi do not study this branch of jutsu extensively, even in an amateur's hands, sealing can become something extraordinarily powerful. For example, rudimentary knowledge of how to create a seal can allow a shinobi to create an explosion tag that can level a house. A containment seal can be altered to store a lake full of water. _

"That's really cool," Naruto decided.

_However, perhaps the first paragraph is a bit misleading. One can change these seals to level countries, and hold oceans (with liberal application of chakra), but there is no such thing as an 'explosion' seal or a 'containment' seal. Seals are like power lines, through which a wave of chakra can flow and be amplified or altered. The Sealing amateur needs only know special arrangements of these lines, known as 'Furu'. Putting several Furu together create a seal. For example, an 'explosion' seal is made up of three Furu – [Amplify], [Fire], and [Eject]._

This was going way over the blonde's head (or rather, the semblance of Kakashi's head). However, he drove on through the text.

_A Sealing Master, on the other hand, is not limited to the 100s of Furu when creating seals. A Sealing Master understands how chakra flows through the lines and how different formations of lines can change the chakra. Thus, a Master can create any sort of seal, including ones to teleport (Hiraishin), grow trees (Yakima Method), and even create new Furu such as the Life, created by Takimoto Fujiro of the Sand. _

Naruto swallowed. Sealing sounded incredibly complex. He turned the page, expecting another block of text, but instead came face-to-face with a really strange scribble. It was circular and round, with no angles. It seemed to be divided into four uneven sections.

_This is the Containment Seal. It is comprised of four Furu. You, as a novice, should first practice copying this seal. Start from the upper left corner and begin. Be sure to use stiff paper, a nice brush, and Sealing ink – rather, ink that is three parts ink and one part blood. The blood is needed to channel chakra._

_Clockwise from the upper left, the Containment Seal is comprised of the [Space], [Activate], [Time-Stop], and [Shield] Furu. You can see that the arrangements seem to be blocks of text, connected by lines that form a circle; this is because the circle is the most stable shape for chakra to circulate in. _

_This Seal can contain objects. If an object, such as a shuriken, is placed on top of this, the Sealer can place a hand on any line in the [Activate] Furu of the seal and apply a small burst of chakra to the seal. Then the object will disappear. When the object is needed again, the Sealer should repeat the process of applying chakra to the Seal through his hand. (Be warned that this should take quite a bit of chakra.) The object will then reappear._

Naruto read the page twice to make sure he understood it. He then placed a hand on the seal and summoned up chakra. A blue haze appeared around him for a second, and part of it – so little he could barely see it – was drawn into the seal. He felt the loss of chakra as a scribe who copies two books every day might feel the writing of a character. "Was that all the chakra it takes?" He wondered out loud. "That's about a tenth of what I use for Henge…"

There was a poof of smoke. "That took a while," the boy observed. When the white smoke cleared up, he was somewhat surprised to see that it had worked. There were two strange kunai sitting on top of the book. For some reason, they looked flimsier and had three prongs. Naruto shrugged and tucked them into his kunai pouch.

It was then that it hit him. "If this works, then I can just seal all the books away and take them out!"

Now just to find a sheet of paper… and a brush… and ink… with blood in it.

This was going to take a while.

* * *

He was back again after a day, under the guise of a brown-haired smoker wearing the green Konoha vest. Aware that he had to pick a Jounin to get into the upper level, he at last found a man leading a genin team he recognized – Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino.

He had watched the team for a while under the guise of a female civilian. They were eating at a popular barbeque place that he had never gone to because of expense. The man seemed friendly, laughing easily and smiling a lot. He most likely talked more than the would-be-sensei. He was also rather sharp, being, of course, a Jounin. He had glanced up after about the tenth minute and Naruto blushed and walked away, trying to imitate a woman with a crush.

The blonde was now rather glad that he had spent so much time getting the 'girl act' down perfect.

He swaggered into the library again. "Hey," he greeted the same chuunin guard.

The guard looked bemused. "There have been a lot of visitors recently," he remarked.

The brunette Jounin looked up curiously. "Who else came here?" He questioned.

"…Kakashi-san," the chuunin confided after a pause. "But he might have only come to get the Icha Icha collection. There's a section for those on this level." His eyes stared at the hidden Naruto intently. Icha Icha? He vaguely remembered seeing that on a poster ad close to the red light district of Konoha, where his home was. It was a small, orange book – it was the book that Kakashi had read on the fateful day of his Genin test.

For a man to carry a book like that around in his weapons pouch…

"Nah, he's got all of them," Naruto guessed. The guard was obviously suspicious. As far as the boy could tell, however, it was the right answer, because the man relaxed and waved him through the door. He walked through immediately but only relaxed when he heard the telltale thud of the guard sitting down again.

Immediately he burst into action. As one hand fished the paper, brush, and ink jar from his pouch, his feet led him to the aisle where the books were. After his last visit, he had decided it was too risky and had left all of the books there. He smoothed out the paper and took out the book, flipping quickly to the page where the seal was.

His hands easily traced the shape of the seal onto the rice paper.

It was a skill from a lifetime of negligence. In class, when they had gone over forgery, everybody had been astonished at how good he was.

* * *

"_I told ya I was good at this kind of stuff!" Naruto exclaimed in victory. Iruka peered from one sheet to the other. There was really no difference, other than the inkblot on the original copy – but Naruto had even made a (good) attempt at reproducing that. _

"_It's really very good," Iruka reluctantly agreed. Suspicion immediately formed in his mind. "Did you really do this, Naruto?" The loud, brash prankster couldn't possibly have done so well on something even Iruka found challenging, could he? _

"_Of course!" The boy explained, with his cheeks puffed out and eyes unabashed. Nobody thought that he was lying. Well, nobody but _her_. Haruno Sakura slipped through the crowd and quickly examined the papers. "Isn't it great, Sakura-chan?" Naruto prompted. Haruno Sakura was a leader of Sasuke's fan girls. Surely, if she complimented him, then somebody would agree!_

_She smiled, but it looked victorious rather than congratulatory. It came to Naruto then that Sakura had always had a viciously quick mind. "There's no way you could have done this," she declared. He vaguely heard somebody agree loudly, but all his attention was focused on keeping the angry heat in him down. "I bet you failed so badly that you decided to take Sasuke-kun's work for yourself!" Horrified at this turn of events, Naruto couldn't even protest. "Isn't that right, Sasuke-kun?"_

_He turned to the boy – surely Sasuke's pride would keep him from accepting this, right? There was a moment of tense silence. Naruto stared at his dark-haired classmate. Finally, the Uchiha nodded once, slowly. Sakura turned to him. There was a triumphant glint in her eyes. _

_In that moment, she looked beautiful, in the way that a soldier kills beautifully. She had gone in to win, and with the support of everybody else's unconditional beliefs, she did._

_So his paper was switched with the Uchiha's. Everybody naturally lauded the 'genius', even though the boy himself wore a grimace. And Naruto stared down at his paper, filled with the cramped, stiff writing of Uchiha Sasuke, and smiled as he heard the praises. Because no matter what anybody said, they belonged to him._

_The next test day, he stole two sheets of paper. With his usual abysmal, half-of-it-blank performance, he finished one. On another, he made an 'effort' but made it fail miserably. This he did in Sasuke's handwriting, which he had studied over the weekend. Of course, as he turned it in, he palmed the bottom sheet, which the Uchiha had turned in first, and slid his fake there instead. He almost froze when he heard the loud crinkling of paper as he folded Sasuke's test to fit up his sleeves. After class, the Uchiha was dragged apart for a 'talk'._

_Revenge was a dish best served with a mask of innocence and harmlessness._

* * *

He heaved all dozen-some books on the sheet. Placing a hand on top of it, he murmured, "Seal." There was a slight delay of about two seconds before a puff of white smoke (the byproduct of used chakra, as he recalled from a remedial class) enveloped the books. They disappeared.

"Is everything okay in there?" The guard peered into the room, having felt the short burst of chakra. He saw 'Asuma' reaching up to the top shelf (which was ridiculously high) and laughed before turning back around.

Fifteen minutes later, the chuunin peered in and called out, "There's a message for ya. Says you need to go to a Jounin meeting in forty-five." Naruto nodded affirmation and went on thumbing through a text labeled 'Genin Lessons'. It was quite interesting – tree walking and water walking, along with some team strategies that he could probably combine with Kage Bunshin.

Half an hour later, Naruto walked out of the library with the face of an old smoker and at least a dozen smuggled books. He waved goodbye to the chuunin guard and lazily sauntered through the front doors, making it to an alleyway before taking off his guise and speeding away.

* * *

On another note, Asuma was late for a Jounin meeting. That is to say, Kakashi arrived before him. Usually, the meeting went on regardless, but with two Jounin missing out of the relatively small force, nothing started. Annoyed, Sarutobi sent Kurenai to find him. Kurenai, being annoyed at having been made to wait for two hours, left quickly and with much rage.

While an ever-alert Kakashi was at an entirely different level, the sleepy, unsuspecting Asuma, who had just napped with his genin team, was no match for the enraged femme fatale.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** 10.31.2012: Minor edits & additions

Thanks again to all my reviewers; you guys just keep making my days brighter.

_Liffae ^-~_


	4. Information Ninja

**Chapter Three: Information Ninja**

_Tape can't fix a broken heart._

* * *

The boy sped through the trees. After two lonely weeks of nothing but painful studying and scavenging, he had finally made it through the Basic Sealing Book. Naruto had spent more hours studying in the past two weeks than he had assumed possible.

Not to say, of course, that he had spent all his time studying. He had devoted a good day or so to the tree-climbing exercise that he had read about in 'Genin Lessons' but had only made it about 20 feet up.

He had made a total of fifteen trips back, under the guise of various different people, and purchased with stolen money or simply stolen many lifetimes' worth of paper and ink and lost more blood than was good for his health, though the (_demon, demon) _fox must have protected him. He'd also had a change of clothes, as the orange had outlived its welcome and the brown paint and mud had worn off.

Though it had been great for stealth training and taking it off and certainly thrown his past pursuers many times, it was better to blend in now. Orange didn't lend itself well to green foliage. (On the other hand, it was perfect for the Hokage Monument and various other buildings in Konoha without being obtrusively sneaky. If there was such thing.)

Naruto finally decided to go ahead and take a look at the seal, confident that he would at least be able to tell what kind of seal it was.

His feet and heart pounded as he made his way across the rooftops, this time under the mask of a boy he'd known rather well. Although it dredged up painful memories, Sasuke was still one of the people he could imitate best. And it was a quickly fading pain, in any case.

With single-minded determination and a haughty, holier-than-thou attitude, Naruto bypassed many other traveling ninja easily. The chakra used for inner muscle and bone strengthening far surpassed that used for the _Henge _(pro: he didn't even have to strengthen his insides because of the fox), and if any of the ninja passing him noticed it, it was easily dismissed as a genin wasting a little more chakra than what he needed (con: it seemed, according to the 'Genin Lessons' book and many exploded bits of tree, Naruto was always wasting chakra).

Or at least, that's what he assumed since a chuunin (complete with the awesome green vest!) stopped him to tell him that. He barely listened to the woman's instructions, distracted by the knowledge that if she knew it wasn't the Uchiha, she wouldn't have been kind at all. If she knew she'd actually been kind to _Uzumaki Naruto_, the demon, the bastard, the… (ignored, lonely orphan?)

He couldn't even force a grimace on his face when he heard her say "good luck" and instead turned around abruptly to leave.

The sun was hot on his back, late summer heat melting the rooftops by the time Naruto made it to the Hokage Tower. He'd never realized just how _big_ Konoha was. Or how many of those infernal ninjas ran around on the rooftops, forcing him to duck around to avoid troublesome ones (like Iruka-sensei, whom he passed at least three times, somehow. Shouldn't he have been in class, teaching?).

From the Hokage Tower to the Hokage Monument there were no more rooftops, only a stretch of greenery and several training fields. To the right was the Academy and toward the left was a tall, metal building that Naruto had never visited.

After all, the shinobi sentries in front of it didn't exactly scream _open invitation._

The climb to the top of the Monument could be made up two flights of stairs on either side, or straight up the mountain face, though nobody attempted that. Naruto guessed he could take a stab at it with the tree-walking exercise, but the wall was much higher than his 20-foot record. From the top, visitors could lower an observation deck and observe more closely the fine craftsmanship of the stone faces, which looked more like stone counters from up close.

The deck was set so that visitors couldn't reach out and touch the stone. However, when a new face was to be carved into the mountain the observation deck could be brought closer for the sculptors. It was through this mechanism that Naruto had managed to paint the Monument during his final Academy year.

_Good times._

There were some cranks and bolts he had to adjust, along with the pulley system and the positioning of the upper supports, but the idea itself was simple and he'd used it not too long ago. He was only glad that they hadn't thought to change it and Naruto-proof it.

Sometimes not playing the same prank twice came in handy.

The metal clanged loudly as he got into it, his weight straining against the ropes. Not for the first time, he wondered if it was safe. Then he decided that he couldn't care less. Likely, if he fell, the fox in him would keep him safe (Pro).

Luckily, the Fourth's face was right there. Naruto positioned himself in the middle of the deck so that it wouldn't swing crazily and pulled at the ropes connected to the pulleys. The rough ropes chafed at his hands, but by then he was so close to the giant right eye that he could feel it.

A seal.

He brought himself within inches of the Fourth's eye, so close that the impurities in the stone stood out. The lines of seals were familiar to him, after spending hours every day staring at them, but it still looked like plain old sandstone.

Then he began to see it. A crack here, a line there – fine changes in color and tint. He couldn't see the entire seal, but he had to admit that if anything, the Yondaime was nothing short of a genius. A splatter here, a bit that looked exactly like bird poop (maybe it was authentic), some fine cracks in the sandstone, and a dusty, slight change in color (a strip of a different kind of stone?) came together to make the most well-disguised seal Naruto had ever seen.

Somehow the Yondaime must have run chakra through those items – maybe there was a layer of the usual ink-and-blood underneath? Blood was a great chakra conduit, and when mixed with ink was good for creating seals that didn't necessarily have to be disguised. One could also create chakra-only seals, though those glowed with the blue hue of chakra and they were far beyond Naruto's level; he couldn't visualize a seal in his mind all in one go, and he had no idea how to shape his chakra into the form of a seal. He didn't know how much time it would take to learn how to run seal-forming chakra through nonconductive elements and string together a seal that way.

Things that formed seals had a magnetic attraction to each other; a made seal tended to stay that way, even if it was created from loose leaves on the ground. Without the attraction, there was the chance that this clever disguise would actually have been to the seal's detriment and the contents would be forever lost.

Then again, Naruto hadn't seen many real-life seals. Only book ones, which were real enough but not _ninja,_ y'know? Maybe all _real ninja_ seals were like this.

He looked at the seal more closely.

There, the [Space], largest, a small [Activate], a [Shield] and a [Time-Stop]. Together, it created a 'shielded pocket of space outside of time' with an activation area that acted like a door. It was the simplest kind, one that, once activated, would force anything inside the seal out. If there was nothing inside the seal, what was on the [Activate] Furu would go in. There wasn't even a [Entry] Furu to insert something into the seal if it already held something else.

Containment seal.

It was the first he'd ever learned, and the knowledge that he could have done this on the first day bothered him.

But it was so easy. How could this have remained a secret all those years? All those tourists and ninjas and people and none of them could recognize a seal?

(Naruto blatantly ignored the fact that two weeks ago he didn't even _know_ what a seal was.)

Then Iruka-sensei's force-fed history lessons kicked in. The Yondaime carving was made three months after he took up the Hokage mantle and took several months to complete. This must have been sealed close to the day of the Kyuubi attack. After the Kyuubi attack, the village was too devastated to go around messing with the Monument.

Even twelve years afterward, Konoha had never fully recovered from the attack. It was not too unbelievable for a well-done disguise created by the Yondaime himself to have stayed a secret for 13 chaotic years.

With that thought, Naruto had managed to convince himself that the seal and everything about it was not a trap. With an unsteady hand, he touched the 'release' or 'activate' portion of the seal. He could see now all the fine lines and Furu in the seal, the excellent craftsmanship, and the _natural_ feeling of it all, but everything went away as he closed his eyes.

At that moment, he didn't have the energy, his usual confidence, to say 'Activate!' loudly. He just channeled a bit of chakra to his hands and sighed.

_Here's hoping for the best._

* * *

"Uzumaki Naruto." It was soft, like a breeze. Familiar, somehow.

Naruto stopped at the edge of the forest. In his hands were scrolls, round, cylindrical, the feeling of paper and knowledge and the thought that the _greatest-shinobi-who-ever-lived_ had written them and they were _his_ and he was running faster than he'd ever run in his life.

But he stopped.

And he looked around.

There was not a rustle, not a word, not a person in sight.

But there, in front of him, was a scroll. A paper, and something on top of it.

His first instinct was to jump back. After learning extensively of the very, very many different types of Explosive seals (this way for bigger explosion, this way for more fire, this way for more noise, this way if you just _really want to kill somebody_…) he had become rather wary of all paper.

But curiosity and good eyesight got the better of him. He landed on one foot and sprang forth, pushing with his ankle, and was at the paper in a matter of seconds. He inhaled sharply and smelled ninja: scentless soap and kunai grease and old blood.

Somebody, then, had left this for him. Somebody who knew his name. Somebody with a voice he recognized.

Somebody who, for some reason, wanted him to have a shiny new Konoha forehead protector, a stainless steel Konoha dog tag (for identifying dead bodies and discrete affiliation identification) and a scroll with a lavender sticky note on it.

"_Naruto: We ninjas are like a disease on the face of the earth. When the people of the mountain met the people of the sea, diseases from both countries wiped out half of their populations. But the disease was only trying to survive. Go, likewise, and survive. Jiji."_

He paused and stifled a sound between a cry of outrage and a laugh. "Is he telling me to kill people? What is he saying?" He peeled off the sticky-note and stuck it on the inside of his new forehead protector. Iruka-sensei's he had left in his apartment, along with much of his old life.

Then he read the scroll.

"_I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, hereby authorize Uzumaki Naruto, of Konoha, information-ninja, to go forth into the nations and learn everything he can. He is to report back to Konoha within five years and is to be received by the acting Hokage of that time. Until then, he is to make annual reports to a representative of Konoha at places of their discretion."_

"Information ninja?" Naruto looked up at the sky. Then he turned to the Hokage tower. "What even is that?" Then he laughed.

"I think you can see me, old man," he said to the tower, "because I'm starting to feel like you're omnipotent." He paused, unsure of what to say, unsure if anybody at all would hear his words. "Thank you."

But it felt too soft, and serious, so he raised his voice: "I'm still going to be Hokage someday, believe it!"

And maybe he didn't really believe in it anymore - maybe he was fed up and hurt and angry, but in that moment he loved the Hokage and he loved Konoha with all his heart. And maybe he was still an idiot, and maybe all those years of shouting things at the top of his lungs had affected him, but in that moment, he believed it.

He imagined, then, in five years, returning triumphant. Konoha would take him back - Konoha would want him back - Konoha would _welcome_ him home. He would stand at the Yondaime's head, powerful and independent, and he wouldn't take shit from any random villager. He'd stand there, at the top of the world, and look down.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **10.30.2012: Edits, a bit of clarification on the Hokage thing.

Thanks for all your reviews! You guys are so sweet :) And your faves clog up my inbox, but they make me smile all the same.

_Liffae ^-~_


	5. From Kakashi

**Chapter Four: From Kakashi**

_Strength lies in the healing._

* * *

Kakashi had watched until Naruto stood up from where he sat, reading the letter. He'd watched the boy's face change over the course of the letter. He watched one (still child-small) hand clutch the scroll. He watched until the light grey-browns of his sensei's son's back disappeared into the trees. He stayed until he couldn't hear him, couldn't smell him, and couldn't feel him anymore.

Some part of Kakashi said, _You might never see him again._ And the rest of Kakashi choked up that little part until it shriveled and died.

Naruto was strong. Kakashi had watched him for twelve years. He had seen the boy at his best and at his wors,t and even now he was still realizing that there were things Naruto had endured that he had no idea of. He had never been able to lift a finger, never been able to help until no eyes were watching (though there were always eyes watching) but sometimes he would shed the heavy shackles of the law.

Sometimes he would enter the apartment and leave a gift, a new carton of milk, a touch on the forehead of a boy caught in nightmares – the smallest, most shameful of things. Sometimes he wondered why he didn't do more for the boy. What was the law? Could the law touch him, an ANBU Commander, one of the best they'd ever had?

But it was the law that protected Naruto, protected him from death. It might hurt him, but maybe it was also the cruel law that made him strong.

He swallowed thickly. Naruto was gone now.

But they had gone first. He'd stayed and watched them, almost symbolically, the civilian and the ninja, both abandoning Naruto. And after Naruto had watched them leave and Kakashi was trying to figure out how to help without exposing himself, Naruto had stopped his fruitless writhing in the ropes that Kakashi had tied. Almost easily, he'd slipped out of the bindings and walked away, not once looking back.

Maybe, in two years, after he'd done his duty teaching the Uchiha and watched over Naruto as closely as he could, the boy would return, and Konoha would see what she had lost. Uchiha was just one in a clan of many that had gone insane, a link to Obito, a boy driven mad by his past. Naruto was strengthened by his past and would be more of an asset to Konoha, properly trained, than anyone else.

At least, Kakashi believed in him. It had been a long time since Kakashi had believed in anybody. He'd forgotten how good it felt.

* * *

_It was later, maybe days, maybe weeks, that Naruto saw the contact list, on the back of the scroll._

"_Your status has only been made known to several Jounin. To the rest of Konoha, you are considered a failed genin and a civilian for secrecy's sake. The following are your contacts and can be trusted:_

_Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen  
Jiraiya the Toad Sage  
Jounin Commander Nara Shikaku  
Head of Intelligence Morino Ibiki  
Elite Jounin Sarutobi Asuma  
Elite Jounin Hatake Kakashi_

_Contacts may be added to this list by those on this list. Please act with discretion and stay safe._

_All my best."_

_Kakashi? Kakashi, the almost-sensei, the would-be-sensei, the man who had failed Team 7? For a week – maybe for a month (what was time, to him?), as he traveled and read and learned and walked like a normal person among the crowds of places that didn't know him, he was angry. He was sad and angry and scared that he was expected to trust the man that had caused all of this._

_If not for Kakashi, he might still be in Konoha._

_If not for Kakashi, he might not know how to climb trees, how to craft seals, how to make a profit travelling from town to town. He might not know how to banter with strangers and laugh with people he didn't know. He might not know how to walk on water, might not have the Yondaime's scrolls. He might not be training from wind scrolls written by the Yellow Flash himself. _

_He might be stuck on a team with a boy who didn't care for him and a girl who beat him down. After that month, that week, a period of time not altogether calculable, Naruto found that he wasn't angry. _

_He was maybe even a little grateful._

* * *

Kakashi saw him sooner than expected, but later than he wanted, because he had wanted to wake the next day and have a team on the bridge, a nostalgic, wonderful, second chance of a team.

Instead, it was two months before he saw the boy.

In those two months, Kakashi did much of nothing. A typical day consisted of him showing up a couple hours late and taking Sasuke on a D-rank with another team, during which he'd conveniently disappear.

Really, he had nothing against the boy. (Okay, so maybe the way the kid acted, and maybe his haircut, maybe his morose eyes, and maybe the looks the civilians gave him – maybe those pissed him off a little. But really, he was doing his best not to be biased. Really.) It was more of him rebelling against the Hokage's orders, against the Merchant Guild's arrogance. They could not force him to do anything, especially when there was no Naruto left to threaten him with.

And sometimes he looked at Sasuke and saw Obito, and then the boy would turn and become him, shelled in Obito's skin, living the life Obito deserved. There weren't any other black-haired, pale-skinned, Uchiha-high-bred-faced boys around and it was annoying that Sasuke, who wasn't all that much like Obito, could just be too much like Obito. Except he really wasn't like Obito, not at all, and maybe if he was Kakashi would like him more. Then again, if he was like Obito, Kakashi might hate him for it. And he was obviously driving Kakashi insane, because Kakashi himself couldn't understand his own feelings toward the boy anymore.

(So maybe he did hate him, just a little.)

And they both grew more sullen and withdrawn and childish until Kakashi decided he'd had enough.

On the first day of his third week with not-Obito, Kakashi taught him tree-walking. He watched the Uchiha charge up the tree and waste chakra and almost wished he'd passed the team. He could just imagine Naruto there, like Obito in Sensei's skin, familiar and annoying and safe in unexpected ways. The girl, he couldn't speak for, but he knew Naruto.

But then, he thought, they'd be arguing. Oh, they wouldn't be lonely – for he had no doubt that somewhere in his misguided heart, Sasuke was lonely. But they'd fight, and they'd bicker, and they'd hurt, and he wasn't Sensei, and he couldn't tape together teenage hearts.

So he watched and read and wished and taught a little, and the month passed by.

* * *

"I want a C-Rank."

Kakashi looked at the kid. Oh, he was older than Kakashi had been, but Kakashi knew_ he_ was no measuring stick for young shinobi. He looked at him and saw a boy who desperately needed to prove himself.

Desperation wasn't good.

But it was enough.

With an almost imperceptible nod to the Chuunin, Kakashi approved the request. The Chuunin sighed and said, "Yes, but you can't go alone."

"I can do it."

"Well, according to the rules book you can't," observed the Chuunin. He seemed to be trying hard not to laugh. (Many of the ninjas didn't like the Uchiha. They were technique thieves and bastards and the civilians always gave them discounts just because they had the easy job of policing Konoha's quiet streets.)

It was, surprisingly, Ino came to Sasuke's rescue.

Ino has been out of whack since Sakura failed the genin test. At least, according to a drunken Asuma, she was as crazy as she could ever have been expected to be. He seemed, perhaps, a little angry at Kakashi as he said this, but he had read the files and he had watched the recording. There was no chance for that kind of a 'team'.

She has been training, the younger Sarutobi said. She has been quiet and diligent and bitter and jaded. She is, he said, too young to be like this. Kakashi told him that nobody is too young, not in the world of ninjas. He watched Asuma remember who he was talking to.

Watched the man remember _Kakashi._ Watched him see himself complaining to _Kakashi _about being too young. Asuma stopped talking, and Kakashi didn't press the issue.

He did not tell Asuma that sometimes he dreamt of passing the team. But they would tear themselves apart, and he knew it.

The look Ino gave Sasuke was no longer one of adoration. It was perhaps close to a glare, close to a scream, close to revenge. Kakashi watched Sasuke for his reaction, but saw none.

The boy was blind, and too affected. All he could see was his brother's shadow. _Perhaps,_ Kakashi thought, _Sasuke needs a psychiatrist._ The thought became a bullet on his to-do list.

* * *

They started off to Wave the next day, with their drunken client. Ino's transformation, Kakashi mused, had done wonders for her team. They were well-glossed now, equal at least in their dislike of Sasuke. Asuma was visibly proud of his students. Kakashi was quietly not-so-proud of his.

When the Demon Brothers appeared, Sasuke quickly took down one with liberal application of fire. Ino-Shika-Chou was on the other just as quickly, bringing him down in a way that would allow for immediate interrogation, when Sasuke stepped in and took a shot at the second ninja.

Kakashi saw the formation falter, saw the enemy evade, sighed, and stepped in to bring him down.

"Sasuke!" He snapped, immediately. "What is the number one rule of Konoha ninja?"

Sasuke considered him balefully. "The mission comes first," he said.

Kakashi sighed. "Right and wrong, Sasuke," he said. "The team comes first." Asuma stared openly at them; Team Asuma mirrored their teacher. Kakashi disregarded all of them. "How can you do the mission without your team?"

"I don't need help," Sasuke snarled. "I'm not weak."

"No," Kakashi agreed. "But you're definitely not strong." Strength, Kakashi didn't say, was the Yondaime's back in front of his team. Strength was Obito's back in front of him, saving him. Strength was the fox in the boy, the boy around the fox, back stretched in front of all of Konoha. Strength was not – not… Strength was not what Kakashi had been.

He didn't say a word when they decided to continue the mission. Two Jounin – especially him and Asuma, two High Jounin – were enough for up to S-class missions, even with the burden of protecting a young genin team.

He didn't say anything, but it wasn't because of that. Kakashi wondered if maybe Naruto would be somewhere along the road to Wave.

Somewhere in his head, there was a connection between Naruto and Sensei.

Somewhere in his heart, he believed that Naruto could save him; Sasuke, broken from death, and himself, broken from war. Ninjas killed and maimed and broke, but somehow there was something about sunny blue eyes and golden hair that still spoke of healing.

* * *

Kakashi didn't expect to actually find Naruto there. And certainly not on the opposite side.

But when the giant sword soared through the air, there was a whisper, a presence, a something. He ducked, pressed Tazuna down, fished out a kunai, and flung it. His feet slid into an easy, wide, ready stance. Asuma beside him, knives out. Sasuke behind. The team clustered in a rough triangle.

And Naruto, in the chakra-laden mist, porcelain mask hiding his face. But nothing hid his chakra signature, so like his father's, and nothing hid his sunny hair.

Zabuza (Demon of the Mist, killed his class, A-Rank, bounty of twenty million, moderately challenging, watch out for the sword) circled them slowly, well aware that a wrong move would probably bring the famous Copy Nin down on his head.

Kakashi had only half his mind on Zabuza. He and Asuma wouldn't kill Naruto, but sneaking in on opposite sides like this was tricky. He had to talk to the boy. He had to see him. He had to ask him what it was like, how he was faring, if he needed anything, if Kakashi could do something. Old guilt welled up like new blood.

"Hey," Zabuza shouted. He would not use Naruto's name, Kakashi realized, if he knew Naruto was from Leaf and they were from Leaf. Asuma must recognize the boy. Kakashi wanted desperately to take Asuma aside and make sure the admittedly oblivious man wouldn't target Naruto. "Take care of the brats." He shifted.

"No problem," Naruto said. His voice was deeper than Kakashi remembered. _He's grown_, he thought, simultaneously nostalgic and happy and sad and amazed. Someday Naruto would be like his father, and Kakashi wanted to see him grow into Sensei.

Then the sword was at him and he made a Water Clone, then replacement, quick, faster, water falling from the cleaved halves of the Bunshin, repeat. Kunai to a roughly bandaged neck, slice – it's a Water Clone – jump back and switch with a Bunshin. Team was gathered around Tazuna, good. Asuma cut in, destroying another Water Clone – Kakashi made a Shadow Clone and then replacement. Then all the Bunshin were gone. He couldn't smell water on the Zabuza in front of them.

There was a slight lull as Zabuza watched them and caught his breath and wished for weaknesses they didn't have.

He lifted up his headband, revealing a scarred Sharingan eye. Obito's legacy.

He had sworn that one day Obito's legacy would be known throughout the nations, and it was. Zabuza flinched, just a little, but the Sharingan saw it. A cling of metal echoed from the kids, three Naruto clones circling the group easily, slowly, just keeping them in place.

Why wasn't Naruto going for Tazuna? But Kakashi had no time to think and Zabuza's hands moved, and it burned into his eyes, his brain, and his hands, so fast that they performed the seals at the same time. "Water Release: Water Dragon!" He shouted with Zabuza. It drained his chakra, but he had large reserves – the Sharingan ate at his chakra, burning in his temples. Asuma sent two Wind Releases at Zabuza, but there was a Naruto there, suddenly, blocking it.

"Shit-" but it was a clone, and Zabuza smiled at them like Naruto was _his_. "This is the end for you," Kakashi pronounced, some twisted rage heavy in his adrenaline-filled heart. He poured concentration into the Sharingan, nothing else, hand seals and eyes and bandages and the flickers of chakra and the _twist _of the jutsu and he had it.

He barely registered Asuma muttering an expletive and going to the team, all focused in the water he'd gathered _swallowing_ Zabuza, gathering electric-charged chakra in his hand, and heading in. Just enough chakra left.

A shadow whizzed out of the trees, following a quickly thrown glint of a senbon. Kakashi paused, if only to avoid collision.

"Thank you," the Hunter-nin said. Fake. Fake.

_Naruto's in danger_, he thought. Then, _damn, my chakra. _The last push had taken too much. He'd poured too much into the Sharingan, trying to finish the jutsu before Zabuza. He could open his Sharingan for hours, not just minutes of a battle. He'd let his rage control him.

Quickly, tiredly, he scanned the team. Asuma and the four were okay, getting back on their feet – "Did you see how I held that masked ninja off?" Could they not recognize blonde hair when they'd seen it for a year? Asuma smiling, nodding, Sasuke scowling.

Kakashi half-fell, half-lowered himself to the ground, pulled the headband over his eye, and slept.

* * *

The first thing Kakashi did when he woke up was go out to look for Naruto.

Well, not really. First, of course, he sat up and checked the surroundings – a rickety old wooden bed in a slightly moldy room. Fine. And then he had to go greet Sasuke as nonchalantly as possible, as if he hadn't been out for the past two days and was not wondering what had happened those days.

Asuma gave him a brief report, disguised as a hello. "Glad you're up!" He said. "We've just been working on two against two sparring. Tazuna's in the house right now with his daughter and grandson, eating breakfast. I've been watching the perimeter. With you up and about, maybe I'll get some shut-eye." Kakashi chuckled good-naturedly and assured Asuma he was still sick and couldn't keep watch. Asuma pouted a little. The kids laughed and went back to sparring.

Sasuke looked a little brighter, which was good. Maybe time around the two friendly boys had helped him. Then Kakashi told Asuma, "I'm going to go check out the town," and Asuma nodded like they didn't both know he was going to look for Naruto. "I'll be back by dinner time. Do you want to go?" _Do you want to see him? _

Asuma was one of those people who might know about Naruto's heritage, because of his connections, but Kakashi wasn't sure if he knew or if he cared. He'd been part of the 'contact' session Sarutobi had held, so they'd each know which other ninjas knew about Naruto's strange status, but he might not know of Naruto's heritage, or the things the boy had been through.

"Maybe later," he said. "You're enough, right?" Kakashi paused and nodded.

"Are you okay, Kakashi-sensei?" Ino asked, with real concern. For a while Ino had known him as one of her dad's 'friends', a war-torn teenager who her mother plied with tea and who spent time with her father. There was something to be said about a girl who could guess at what psychological trauma a ninja had just from the time he spent with her father.

"I'll be fine," he said, and smiled.

Then he was out the door, scent of wood and salt and water in the air, into the trees by Tazuna's house. It was quiet but for a couple lone gulls calling over the sea, and if he wasn't Hatake Kakashi he would have thought nobody was there.

But Kakashi immediately noticed the three 'chakra holes' in the peripheral of his senses. They followed him and he headed for the shoreline, stopping by the edge of the water to sit. "Sit with me," he said. A gull cawed, and two of the holes disappeared.

"How did you notice me?" Naruto asked from behind Kakashi. He walked up and sat.

"I'm guessing the fake hunter-nin taught you to black out your chakra?" Naruto nodded. "It's a good lesson, but that's just the first step. Now you have to assess the ambient chakra in the environment and control your output so it matches. Blacking out can't fool Jounin, but a good chakra cloak can fool even ANBU."

There was a glint in Naruto's eye, something that searched for learning. Kakashi felt comfortable - almost too comfortable - teaching the blonde he hadn't seen for what seemed like years. Was Naruto not mad at him? Were they okay? Naruto didn't know Kakashi like Kakashi knew Naruto. Kakashi had watched over Naruto nearly all his life, but only as a shadow.

But he didn't know how to say any of that, didn't know how to ask for forgiveness when he had done more than he should have but not all he could have for the boy. He didn't know how to tell Naruto that he'd wanted to teach him but got the Uchiha instead, and though the boy was smart and talented by all means he wasn't –

"How have you been?" He asked, instead. "_Where_ have you been?"

"I've been studying the scrolls I picked up from Konoha," Naruto said. "The Fourth's scrolls don't do basics, but he explains jutsu very thoroughly, and I don't have any trouble with the 'dangerous chakra output' stuff."

"That's because you have so much chakra," Kakashi interjected. "Most people wouldn't have difficulties with things like Bunshin, but you have trouble with them because you have this giant sea of chakra and no way to control how much output you have. So the more chakra-intensive jutsu should be easier for you." Naruto nodded, eyes attentive, and Kakashi felt like a teacher for maybe the first time in his life.

"So, techniques that use more chakra are easier," Naruto confirmed.

"Something like that."

"Okay. Then I went through southern Fire country first but when summer hit and it got hot, I headed north. Wave just happened to be in my path, and I actually ended up around the border of Mist and Wave. Zabuza-san and Haku picked me up there, and for the past month I've been with them."

"The hunter-nin is part of your team?" Kakashi asked, even though he already knew the answer. Naruto had confirmed his suspicions with his silence earlier when Kakashi mentioned the fake Hunter-nin.

Naruto seemed quieter, like when he was much younger, and Sarutobi still visited him every other day. The villagers had been bitter, but more fragile from recent loss. They'd been less aggressive toward him then. Everybody tended to just ignore him. It looked like Naruto had gotten a bit of attention, or maybe he had always been like this and Konoha had just turned him into some orange, nonstop chatterbox of an idiot.

"Yeah, Haku's pretty cool. He's really loyal to Zabuza-san, and he talks strange sometimes, but he's nice and he knows a lot." He stopped, paused. "You're not… going to kill them, are you?"

Kakashi thought about it. "We don't have to, but it would be easier to," he admitted, finally. "Though, with your help, we should be able to reach an agreement."

"I'll help!" Naruto burst out immediately. "Actually Haku's pretty worried since both you and Asuma-san are here, and he doesn't think we're quite a match for _two_ high-level Jounin." He paused. "Er, you didn't hear that from me."

Kakashi chuckled a little. "Well, I could take Zabuza by myself, and Asuma could take down both you and Haku, but you would probably be able to hurt some of the Genin in the process."

Naruto quieted. "You're… Sasuke's teacher, right?"

A lump of dread welled up in Kakashi. He swallowed it down. "I… Well, yes I am." The air felt heavy. He felt the need to explain himself, to excuse himself. "The Sharingan was part of it, and it was a bad situation, and –"

Naruto shrugged, cutting him off. "I know. Zabuza told us a little about the Sharingan and the Uchihas when he was a little awake. He doesn't like them very much, or you for that matter. Calls you copycats and thieves. Where's Sakura?"

It took him a moment to remember Sakura. The pink-haired girl, he recalled, insecure and obsessive, evaluated as book smart and good for future medic training by the Academy file. He hadn't checked up on her. He'd seen little battle potential from her and more problems than solutions. "I don't know," he admitted. "Asuma might know more, from what he says about Ino and her being friends."

Naruto smiled. "They used to be really good friends," he said. "But then they started fighting over Sasuke. Asuma-san is on my contact list. There are some people on it that I don't know how to identify, though."

Kakashi considered it. "I could give you some descriptions; show you the bingo book pages. Who are they?"

"Jiraiya the Toad Sage, Jounin Commander Nara Shikaku, and Intelligence Head Morino Ibiki," Naruto recited. "Nara Shikaku-san must be related to Shikamaru, but they can't look totally alike, right?"

"You probably won't see him. He usually stays in the village for management affairs these days. But for reference, he has the classic Nara look; the spiky black hair and pale, bored-looking face." Kakashi reached into his pouch and drew out a bingo book. "He's only barely made it into the bingo book on account of being a high-level commander in Konoha, his bounty's pretty low too."

Naruto looked at the picture and rolled his eyes. "He looks exactly like Shikamaru. I bet he's lazy like Shika too. I swear he didn't move at all even while I was attacking them."

Kakashi smiled. Naruto seemed to be coping well, even while being an enemy to friends he had in Konoha. He flipped the pages. "Jiraiya-sama is quite… eccentric. You might actually see him, because he's in charge of Konoha's information network."

"Are there other information ninja?"

"Not that I've heard of. Most of Jiraiya-sama's contacts are civilians or rouge ninjas. I don't think any ninja has been a full-time information gatherer, except maybe Jiraiya-sama himself." Naruto deflated a little, and Kakashi hurried to add, "It's definitely an important and helpful position, it's just that usually we don't know where to get the information we need until after we have it already. And Jiraiya is a very famous ninja." _And kind of infamous with the Kunoichi, _Kakashi thought but didn't add. _Then again, so am I. _

Naruto peered at the picture of Jiraiya. "He's old," he said. "And his hair looks funny. He's got tattoos like Kiba."

Kakashi smothered a laugh. Comparing Jiraiya the Toad Sage to the Inuzuka wolves was something the Sandaime would have to hear about. Affecting seriousness, he closed the book. "Ibiki-san… Well, I hope you don't meet him either. He's always in the village, and the only reason you'd see him that I can think of is if you were taken in for interrogation as a spy. He doesn't have a bingo page."

"I should get one of these bingo books," Naruto said. "Where do you get one?"

"They're handed out by the village to active shinobi. There's a Chuunin version, a Jounin version, and a High version, for people with high enough classification to receive classified information on our missing-nin." Kakashi thought about it for a while. "I have a High version, which might get you in trouble if you're caught with it, but it might be helpful for you." He handed Naruto the little grey-green book. "You can take it, I'll just get another. The Hokage will understand."

"Thanks." He took it and shoved it in his kunai pouch.

There was a small, slightly uncomfortable silence. Kakashi wanted to say something, to break it, to use the time, somehow. Because in a week, he'd be gone and they'd go off separately.

"What's the plan?" Naruto asked, finally. "I have to get going before Haku misses me."

Kakashi sighed. "Well, I'm hoping you can convince them to target Gato with us, take him out, and split the money half and half."

"That's not fair," Naruto cut in. "We'd be supplying all the inside information. Plus we'd take a reputation hit from betraying a client."

Amused at the bartering, Kakashi replied, "Dead men don't tell tales. And we're supplying most of the firepower." Of course, a kid on the streets would learn to barter, especially with the Merchants' Guild's grudge against Naruto. That and the ensuing chaos and economic depression after the Kyuubi attack hadn't been good to the civilians (or shinobi) in general.

"You're not letting _them _join in?" Them, of course, referred to the Genin.

Kakashi wondered, idly, when Naruto had started separating himself from them. Then he wondered if they'd ever been a group in any sense. Naruto had been rather isolated, after all. "You're going to be in on it," he pointed out. "But I actually meant me and Asuma. If we're the main force, people will be less likely to trace it back to you. I'm sure the Hokage will be okay with it too; Gato hasn't been good for trade."

Naruto considered it. "I guess it's fine, then," he said finally. "But I'll have to convince them first, make it seem like my idea, and then run with it." He got to his feet. "If I come back with Haku, Zabuza-san, or both, pretend like you don't know me."

"I'm not an idiot."

He turned, then hesitated. Kakashi waited, patiently, water lapping at his Konoha Jounin-issue sandals.

"I'll see you later," Naruto said, paused, and added, "Kakashi-_sensei_."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Much thanks to my most awesome beta, _she who flies_. Further thanks to_ l'-'jj_ for corrections.

Break the Sky: "One lesson Uzumaki Naruto taught the world was that glass ceilings are fragile, and limits are only for the fools who believe in them."  
My newest posted story, and one of my personal favorites.

We are a team, you and I  
This is a thing you can't deny  
The words are mine, but you can see  
You are that which motivates me  
Let's work together, me and you  
I will write, and you'll review.

_Liffae ^-~_


	6. Death Speaks

**Chapter Five: Death Speaks**

_No rest for the great._

* * *

Kakashi's head snapped up. Only moments later, Asuma stood up a little too quickly for it to be casual. Shikamaru lay back from the shogi board and muttered, "Don't walk away just because you're losing." He took quick inventory. He was in a high position, for lookout, Shikamaru and Asuma beneath him. The others were in the house, having breakfast with the family. The client was with them.

Good.

_Three incoming, attack? _Asuma's hands fluttered quickly in Konoha Sign Language. The chakra signatures weren't hidden; they were obviously Naruto, with his unique chakra, Zabuza, and the fake hunter-nin's – Haku's – distinct ice-tainted chakra. They meant for the Konoha Jounin to notice their approach.

_Wait, _Kakashi signed. _Tentative friendlies. _

Or at least, he hoped Naruto's task had gone well. Goodness knows what the two Mist nukenin would do if they suspected him of conspiring with Konoha nin. They _might_ only be coming under the sign of a truce, as a 'viper wrapped in white'. "Sit back down, Asuma, and take the loss like a man," he said out loud.

"What happened?" Shikamaru asked quietly. Kakashi glanced down in surprise. "My da's a Jounin," the Nara explained defensively. "I know some KSL, and Asuma-sensei said _attack_. What's going on, Kakashi-sensei?" Asuma sat down opposite him at the board again.

"It's plan A, Shikamaru," the Jounin said wearily. "If all goes well, we can take out Gato."

"Won't that be a diplomatic nightmare?" _The boy's sharp,_ Kakashi noted, _a bit too much for his own good. _"It isn't an assigned mission and Wave is pretty far from us."

Asuma leaned back on the dying grass with a sigh. "Ordinarily, this wouldn't be okay. It's a bit risky for a genin team and not entirely within mission parameters. And Wave is actually the closest port to Fire. We're right in the middle of the land mass but closer south, so Wave is our closest sea connection. Also, the Crimson River just east of Konohagakure flows through Wave's capital."

"If Wave is an economic asset, why didn't we help them before?"

"Well, after the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago Konoha was in no position to help neighboring countries. We still really aren't. And Wave is small; we've hardly had any missions pass through here, and never with a High Jounin attached. On this team, we have two High Jounin, both capable of making diplomatic decisions outside mission parameters, and we can choose to take down Gato."

"Why-"

"I'm afraid the questions are going to have to stop here, Shikamaru," Kakashi interjected. "They're here." Zabuza was most easily visible, a blob with his sword on his back; Haku was to his right and Naruto to his left. Haku's mask was off and he held senbon in his hand.

Kakashi's senses whispered danger. He cautiously let his hand hang down by his weapons pouch.

100 meters.

Asuma stood up again, cracking his neck. "Shikamaru, go tell the others to come out and set up a four-point rotating guard around the house." Unusually serious, Shikamaru nodded once and sprinted off. When he was out of sight, Asuma turned to Kakashi. "Are you _sure_ they're friendlies, Kakashi? They've got metal out."

50.

"I said _tentative _friendlies," Kakashi said, a little defensively. "And Naruto's with them, but stay on guard."

25.

Kakashi shifted a little, preparing chakra for a replacement, feet moving into ready stance, weight on the balls of his feet so he could move quickly. Beneath him, he saw Asuma shifting and felt the gathering of chakra. Living with the Sharingan this long had made him sensitive to the use of chakra.

They were approaching quickly and not slowing down. Kakashi slowly, hesitantly drew the kunai out a little.

"Stop," Zabuza's gruff voice called, a little too softly to have been meant for the Konoha-nin's ears. "Okay, kid, you said you'd be able to win them over." His hand was on his sword, clearly ready to swing into battle, but he nodded at Naruto and the blonde shot forward.

"Kakashi-sempai," he said, when he was about 10 meters away, "Asuma-sempai." His hands flashed _told them I Chuunin nukenin. _His signing was by no means good but Kakashi hadn't expected any at all. It caught him off guard. When had the boy learned it? _Pretend… _He floundered for a word, _bargain. _"I have a proposal for you."

Kakashi played along. "Why should we trust a Konoha nukenin? I should kill you on the spot."

He had to wonder if the Mist nukenin noticed the deceit, or if they thought Konoha was _that_ soft. If Naruto had really been a nukenin, Kakashi would have killed him, no questions asked. With another High Jounin at his side, Zabuza was no trouble, and his little protégé probably could have been defeated by the four genin working together (if they managed to work together).

"You know the circumstances," Naruto said with a grimace. He walked closer. Kakashi would have to teach him that in truce negotiations, one did not go out of the instant strike zone of allies and into an enemy's lethal zone. "And it's a… mutually beneficial proposal that allows you to complete your assigned mission with no difficulties."

"If you're talking about your little _group_ there," Asuma sneered, "We'd have no difficulties with that." A bit of a stretch, since Zabuza was part of the Seven Swordsmen. But in the end, Kakashi knew that he'd end up dead before two of Konoha's finest: himself a respected ANBU captain, and Asuma part of the guard of the Daimyo.

'Can they still hear us?' Naruto mouthed slowly, overemphasizing each gesture so Kakashi could hardly make it out. He'd have to tell the kid, later, that talking 'normally' was best when mouthing things. Overemphasizing led to a distortion of the lip movements. And KSL was a better bet, anyway.

"Now, now, Asuma," he said, by way of response, "Always overestimate your enemy."

Asuma snorted. "Listen to your own advice." Pitching his voice louder, he said, "Let's hear your proposition."

Naruto visibly halted at the long word. "Well, the plan is…" he started slowly, and seeing Kakashi's slight nod, continued more confidently, "that we team up and go after Gato. We'll provide you inside information and help take them down by providing support and holding down the rest of the fort, and we can split Gato's money half each."

"If he has a will, we can't take his money," Asuma protested.

"It's black money," Naruto said. "Perfectly illegal and not anything he can leave behind. Gato's been making money running drug businesses and a prominent black market alongside his shipping business. He'll definitely have it in cash and it won't be recorded or anything. And after this, Zabuza wants to go back to Mist to help the Civil War, which is something Konoha has wanted over for a while."

Kakashi tapped Asuma and moved his hands. _Nice weather we're having today. _He saw Asuma's face twitch. _It's only a little cloudy. _Asuma shook his head. _Don't joke around, you. This is dangerous. KSL isn't perfectly secure, either. _

"We'll be providing most of the firepower," Kakashi said. "Splitting it half and half is not fair. How about three quarters to us and one to you?"

"What the-?" Naruto almost shouted, a little startled. "No! We're providing all the inside information." Kakashi released a little Killing Intent and Asuma stared at him like he was crazy. "Please, Zabuza does that to me all the time. I'm not scared of you."

Kakashi released a little more, building up pressure, watching for Naruto's breaking point. Then, abruptly, he stopped. "Sounds good to me," he said. "Asuma?" Asuma rolled his eyes and nodded. "Okay, you can go tell Bandages we're good with it."

Naruto nodded and jumped away.

They watched him go. "Do you really think he'll be okay?" Asuma asked, after a while.

"He's more than you think," Kakashi said, and that was the end of that.

* * *

"What did he say?" Zabuza asked, when they were out of earshot and halfway back.

"He agreed," Naruto responded, more of a question than anything. Zabuza already knew that.

"I already know that," Zabuza scoffed. "It was obvious enough when they didn't kill you and let you come back to us. I mean what did they say, when they agreed?"

Naruto frowned. "He just said it sounded good," he muttered. Zabuza sighed.

"My goodness, kid, don't you know how to listen? People don't talk with their mouths alone! What was he looking at? What was he thinking? What was his reasoning behind agreeing to our plan? You should know yourself that we had about a 40-60 chance of getting it."

Naruto shook his head. "We'll make it easier for them to take Gato down, and Gato's been controlling trade through here for a while. The towns I passed on the way here, even in Konoha, suffer a little from him. And they should be thinking about the safety of their students, because," he swallowed, bittersweet memories rushing up and then away, "Konoha always puts the team first. That's what they were thinking. They'll complete their mission and more, and nobody's in danger. Isn't it best when everybody lives to see another day?"

Zabuza didn't look at him, just focused on the jump to the next tree. Haku glanced over after a little while and laughed. When Naruto thought the conversation had finally died, Zabuza grunted and said, "Konoha ninja." It didn't have his usual disdainful tone.

Naruto smothered a smile.

* * *

The best time to perform an assassination was not, as many civilians thought, at midnight. No, the surest bet was early in the morning – very early, around three or four o'clock, when the sun was just circling back around the Nations. And it was at 3:50 that Kakashi went into Gato's stronghold.

He wasn't terribly worried. But he wasn't careless. Good shinobi were never careless. But if it came down to it, Kakashi knew he was a match for the civilian grunts and the low chuunin brutes, especially with insiders on his side and Asuma waiting just outside the compound. No, Kakashi was not worried, and he had no reason to be.

If he and Asuma had wanted to, they could have stormed through the warehouse in the middle of the day. Concrete walls were no match for shinobi techniques. The civilian guards, however well trained, were similarly negligible.

But such a thing would be messy. A lot of blood, a lot of death, and a lot of crying families.

Kakashi hated crying families.

And so it was assassination. A callback to his ANBU times. A little familiar, a little bitter, a little sweet. And not much blood at all, and not many tears, either. Sometimes, Kakashi thought all the problems in the world could be solved with some well-placed poison, or a nicely thrown kunai. Or not even – he could use a knife to maybe pin blame on a civilian, a clumsy technique to point elsewhere, though the sneaking in and out screamed shinobi anyway.

In fact, he didn't even have to be here. With allies in Zabuza and the others, he could use slow-acting poison to take out Gato and any poison testers the man might have.

Heck, the nukenin didn't even need him.

But Kakashi knew it was safer for Zabuza this way. And he and Asuma had the weight of Konoha behind him. And usually, he would have absolutely no compassion for a foolish nukenin who thought he could take advantage of _Kakashi_, but Naruto was with them.

And so it was assassination.

Kakashi ghosted through the halls.

When he was much, much younger, almost before he could remember, his father had taught him movement. He didn't know the game was a lesson at first. It was fun, and he loved it, as he had loved much of anything to do with his father when the White Fang had still been a breathing, caring man. It was something to do with sneaking around, something to do with surprise tickle attacks and tiptoeing. His father told him that the walls had ears, but Kakashi now knew it was only that the walls were no barrier to Sakumo's own ears.

But Kakashi was sure that even the wall's figurative ears – even his father's ears – wouldn't be able to catch him now.

Bypassing yet another layer of useless security, Kakashi fingered a kunai. It wouldn't be hard to simply break through an adjacent wall, ceiling, or floor, and kill Gato with a well-placed kunai. Alternatively, he could knock out the guards and take Gato out courteously, through the door.

Either way, he would use a blade. He would watch the lifeblood pump out from the pudgy man's veins. He would wait until the last breath was gone, until every vestige of hope was gone for the tycoon. It was the only way to kill somebody properly, and Kakashi always personally disliked the quick kills of the battlefield. Murder was something better done with time, better done with contemplation. The heavy weight of a stolen life and whatever that might mean to spouses, friends, or little Kakashis – such a weight couldn't be carelessly created.

It was a weight that needed to drag down on his shoulders, a burden that could never be made too heavy.

He decided to knock the guards out, as he'd spent long enough wandering the stronghold. He didn't feel like finding another room and knocking down a wall. This kill would be courteous, legal even, with no breaking of furniture or architecture. The door opened easily after Kakashi sliced the locks out with a quick application of chakra. The carpet was lush, the great bay windows closed. Gato sprawled out over his bed in a comfortable position.

Kakashi sent up a single prayer as the life fled from Gato's body. He had long since stopped trying to justify it. All that was necessary was an apology; there was no justification for murder.

_Forgive me._

* * *

Naruto ran. He would've walked, but though Wave was an island, it was a big island, and Gato's headquarters and Tazuna's house were on opposite ends. It was nighttime, probably around three in the morning, and Zabuza wanted to leave before sunrise.

Sometimes Naruto thought the big, eyebrow-less man was a little too dramatic for his own good. Honestly, a couple more hours of sleep never hurt anybody.

But Zabuza said so, and Haku always agreed with what Zabuza said, and Naruto didn't have anything better to do anyways.

So he ran, holding the large trunk of money on his back, occasionally jumping into the trees if there were trees. The vegetation was rather sparse, maybe because everything that could be eaten had been dug up and eaten. Naruto had eaten questionable wild things in his past too, though he didn't like to think of those days. Some of the 'foods' he'd tasted were rather nasty. So Naruto wrenched his mind away from them and thought only about the pounding of his feet on the ground, the crisp cold smell of the wind, and the places he imagined he was running to.

He found himself at a dilemma, with his destination quickly approaching. He hoped to leave the money and go, without risking been seen by any of the Konoha ninja likely standing guard. Discovery by one of his former classmates would just be painful. And he wasn't yet sure what to make of Kakashi, who was altogether too helpful and friendly and Naruto didn't quite understand _why_, which made him uncomfortable. And he couldn't just leave the money out of range from the house, for some random citizen to stumble upon. Zabuza would kill him.

As he was talking himself into dropping it off through a window or at the front door (imagine the looks on their faces when they woke up to a big pile of money in the living room!), Naruto stumbled upon Sasuke, propped up against a tree, sleeping.

And for a moment, all he could see was a little boy sitting at the edge of a bridge. Somebody loved and somebody hated, and two people who maybe were not so different after all. And then Sasuke before him, holding out a kunai in a reverse-grip, eyes searching for an opening against Naruto. Through the holes in his mask, Naruto had seen him clearest of all, always searching, always straining for something he didn't know.

But the moment passed. Naruto hefted the trunk in his hands and considered. Sasuke breathed. He lay the money on the ground beside his would-have-been teammate, quietly. It didn't feel right to leave just like that, so he squatted there for a moment.

Finally, Naruto found words. "The next time I see you," he said, "I hope we are standing on the same side. I hope you acknowledge me." But it wasn't all about him, either, so he added, "The next time I see you, I hope you find whatever you're looking for." He wanted to add _believe it_, but it was a hope, not yet a truth, and the words were enough as they stood. It felt right.

With a quick burst of chakra, just like Haku had taught him – very little, not much at all– Naruto burst off the ground and into the trees.

* * *

To get off the island, Zabuza rented a boat. Haku pointed out, quite reasonably, that as shinobi they could water-walk and save the money expended to hire the boat. Or Haku could freeze a path for them, something he claimed wouldn't be too hard and Naruto suddenly desperately wanted to see. A frozen path on the water? Talk about the epitome of coolness, pun intended!

But Zabuza shook his head.

"We're going to Mist, not freaking Konoha," he said. Except he didn't say freaking.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto cried, upset at Zabuza's choice of adjectives. "Konoha is better than Mist! At least we're not bloody ripping ourselves –" Haku clamped a hand over his mouth in a flash and Zabuza rolled his eyes. Naruto did his best to coat Haku's hand with spittle.

"Someday your mouth is going to kill you, brat," he said. "I only hope I'm there to see it happen, because it should be embarrassing and very funny."

Haku seemed to be sure there was no way Naruto could bring up a touchy subject with Zabuza from that, or maybe he was disgusted by the amount of slobber Naruto had managed to get on his hand, because he took it away. "What am I going to do, bite myself to death?" Naruto asked. A couple months with Zabuza had done wonders for his snark.

"There was that time you bit your tongue really hard and you thought you were going to die," Haku offered.

Naruto yelped indignantly. "That was your fault! You cooked that weird fish thing and then expected me to just-"

Zabuza sighed. "This conversation is going nowhere. We're using a boat because I say so. Let's go." Haku seemed just fine with that. Naruto thought to himself that there was something seriously wrong with Haku's reasoning if he accepted 'because I say so' as an argument.

But he trailed after anyway. "Can you still show us your freezing water path thing? Ooh, what if you made the ice thing and we slid across it on the boat like a sled? Wouldn't that be fun? Hey!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Much thanks to my most wonderful beta, _she who flies. _If you have time, please check out my other story:

"Hey," the little boy says exuberantly. "I'm here to be a ninja!"

But that's not the important part. The important part is that the boy looks like Uzumaki Naruto (whom Minai admittedly did not know was a girl until she read the damn girl's profile), and she has been missing for two years, and this might get her promoted again, just maybe.

"Are you okay, miss?" The little brat asks, and Minai realizes she is standing. She runs a hand down her skirt, smoothing the fabric out, and forces a smile on her lips. But before she can get a word out, the brat is off again, "I'm Shindou Toshiro, but everybody calls me Shiro, and my father," a significant glance here, "and I recently moved here, and Konoha is famous for having awesome ninja, so I want to be a ninja, okay?" He puts a hand on his hip and stares up at her, with an expression so entitled and snobby Minai blinks twice.

This… is not Uzumaki Naruto.

-**Break the Sky**, Chapter 2

_Liffae ^-~_


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